About Us

The Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD) was established in Nairobi – Kenya in 1975 under the auspices of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the then Organization of African Unity (OAU), today African Union (AU). RCMRD is an inter-governmental organization and currently has 20 Contracting Member States in the Eastern and Southern Africa Regions; Botswana, Burundi, Comoros, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somali, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Our MissionTo promote sustainable development in the member States through generation, application and dissemination of geo-information and allied ICT technologies, products and services.

Our ApproachRCMRD functional programmes have moved away from service technology framework (e.g. Remote Sensing, Geodesy, Cartography etc.) to problem solving applications in natural resource and environmental management. RCMRD is now providing service on demand driven basis.

RCMRD is now moving into the future with confidence and endeavors to live up to its values of upholding the highest standards of services to its customers and continuously improving the quality of services and products.

Our VisionTo be a premier Centre of excellence in the provision of geo-information for sustainable development in the member States and beyond.

Historical ProfileThe Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD), previously known as Regional Centre for Services in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing (RCSSMRS) was established in Nairobi, Kenya in 1975 under the auspices of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the then Organization of African Unity (OAU). Its founder members are Kenya, Uganda, Somalia, Tanzania and Malawi and the Government of the Republic of Kenya hosts it. It is a non-profit intergovernmental organization and currently has 20 Contracting Member States in the Eastern and Southern Africa Regions; Botswana, Burundi, Comoros, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somali, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The original objectives of the Centre were:

To provide services in the fields of surveying and mapping including aerial photography, photogrammetry, photo-interpretation, first order geodesy, remote sensing, calibration and maintenance of surveying and mapping equipment;

To provide training for nationals of contracting parties in surveying, mapping and remote sensing, and; To provide advisory services upon request on problems relating to surveying and mapping to the governments of member States.

Since its establishment, the Center has been very instrumental in capacity building in resource survey, mapping, remote sensing, GIS and natural resources assessment and management in Africa. It was also instrumental in helping different countries establish their National Mapping Agencies. To date the Centre in any given year trains more than 3000 technical officers from its member States and other African countries in the fields of surveying and mapping, remote sensing, GIS and natural resources assessment and Management. The Centre has also implemented numerous projects on behalf of its member States and development partners.